BJP doesn’t believe in democratic values: DMK

CHENNAI: The ruling-DMK has upped its ante against the BJP and said that the saffron party does not believe in any democratic values.

Penning a strongly worded editorial in its party organ 'Murasoli', the DMK said that the way the BJP behaved in the Shiv Sena issue was proof that the BJP does not have faith in any democratic values.

"Wherever the BJP is unable to win, they splinter other parties, create their own set of stooges in the party and make a mockery of democracy to claim the bragging rights as a winner. It is their approach," the editorial said.

Detailing the split of the Shiv Sena, starting from the fall of Maha Vikas Agadi government led by Uddhav Thackeray after Eknath Shinde broke away with 40 MLAs to the recent ECI order awarding the party symbol to Shinde faction based on legislative majority test, the DMK party organ said that the developments in the Shiv Sena was the most recent proof that the BJP, if it intends, could break parties, topple governments and appropriate parties. The article borrowed the statement of Uddhav that they have lost complete trust in the Election commission of India and criticized the commission's handling of the issue.

Quoting Uddhav's statement that there was no democracy in the country and Shinde has stolen the "bow and arrow" symbol of the Shiv Sena, the Murasoli editorial referred to Congress' critique of ECI on Shiv Sena issue and said that one cannot blame it on the ECI as the rebel MLAs of Shiv Sena only went to BJP ruled Gujarat after engineering a division. Reproducing the statement of the Shiv Sena mouthpiece 'Saamna' that the ECI has decided on the issue like it was a property dispute, the DMK editorial summed up the Shiv Sena turmoil caused by the BJP as an assault on democracy.